Sioux Falls 2014 Population Estimates

The City of Sioux Falls is celebrating the latest growth news. Wednesday, city officials released their own numbers.

The U.S. Census Bureau estimates the population of Sioux Falls for 2013 was at 164,676 people.

Sioux Falls officials say 2014 numbers are much larger.

"When the Census came out and they said that they are at 164,000, we went and put together our July first 2014 figure. And our new city of Sioux Falls estimate for July first 2014 is 166,700 people in Sioux Falls," Jeff Schmidt, Sioux Falls Planning and Building Services said.

For the City, that's an increase of about 2,000 people since July of last year. Determining this number is a little complex. The city uses some data from the Census Bureau, city building permits, and vacancies.

"Trying to estimate where we're at, you know we're not the Census Department, we're not able to get the financial data and tax returns or going door to door. We're just taking a snap-shot and trying to put the numbers together," Schmidt said.

These numbers are used to help the city plan for the future, and grow along with the number of people coming to town.

"Whether it's utility, construction, placement of schools, fire stations, police department staffing. In many cases is based on population estimates," Mike Cooper, Sioux Falls Planning and Building Services said.

Cooper says even though the numbers seem big, the percentage of growth isn't as large as it's been in years past; which is a good thing.

"For us that's very good because it's a very manageable growth rate. Communities that have gone through the roof, with spikes up and down, have more challenges and more struggles in dealing with either rapid population growth or rapid population decline. We have not seen that in recent decades," Cooper said.

The City will re-evaluate the population number at the end of the year, and announce their latest figures at that time.